luschka joint disease now in neck w/ CT

hi guys- i have not been on for a while. erin, sorry to hear about your knees with all the shots and all. hope this helps you. CAMA hi and to el camino all the best to you all.

i went in for a CT scan and meeting with my orthopod last week and he wanted a new ct scan on my necky, i didnt get around to doing the bone scan yet with the radioactive junk.

i am just not up to hearing any more bad news and i know if  i get this done sheesh, what are they gonna be able to do for me anyways, once they all know what it is. more ops?

i dont think so unless i fall down dead maybe and have absoulety no other choice.

but here is the latest ct on my neck alone, not the rest of my back which is bad news.

I have this so called 'luschka joint disease' up and down my entire spine and the PT saw it  and thinks it is really 'lip' formation beginning AS fusion.

findings: the patient is status post anterior cervical disc fusion extending from c 5 - c7. anterior plating is seen extending across c 4-5-6 levels. there is prior bilateral laminectomy at c 4-5 and c5-6 there is interbody fusion extending across these levels w/ rectangular prosthetic fusion device ( anterior 'donor grafting' and illiac crest grafting posterioally) projecting centrally within the disc spaces at these levels.

there is no evidence of recurrent or residual disc herniation at  levels c-5-6-7.

there is a mild degree of disc osteophyte complex formation at c 6-7, there is bilateral luschka joint disease at this level producing a mild degree of bilateral neural foraminal encroachment at this level.

c3-4 there is disc osteophyte complex formation producing moderate to the right, and mild effacement to the left anterior aspects of the thecal sac, there is bilateral luschka joint disease w/ moderate left and mild right facet joint hypertrophic change.

there is moderate bilateral neural foraminal encroachment at the level.

impression: prior anterior cervical disc fusion c5-7

mild disc osteophyte complex formation c  6-7

moderate asymmetric disc osteophyte complex formation c 3-4 w/ moderate effacement right and mild effacement left anterior aspects of the thecal sac and moderate bilateral neural foraminal encroachment.

now when i go in for the T section oh boy what they are gonna find there!!

i wish i go in and have this done and have the report say she is okay and there is nothing we can see wrong with her neck or back.

has anyone else ever heard of this luschka joint disease?

i tried to do a google.com on it and couldnt find much about it. if i have this now i musta had it a year ago so why didnt any of my reports pick it up then?

so now what, more necky ops huh?

effacement and ecroachment doesnt sound good to me with the neural formina and thecal sac.... how close is the thecal sac to the spinal cord? anyone know?

hey,
don't let medical jargon give you the creeps. much of it is just fancy.
i will be looking this up...need a little time to do some reading for ya.
don't worry.
remember...surgery is elective 90% of the time unless it is an emergency & lifethreatening.
when it comes to the spine...the more 2nd opinions the better.
in my prayers always.
erin

Oy!  Missie...this "luschka" thang is NOWHERE to be found in ANY of my texts. lol. So from what I gather, it may be a new name for something old? Or just a different name for something that already exists. But this one baffled me.  But I suspect, it's most likely a uncommon term used for something very common.

It is probably in the family of DDD and bone spurs and fusions etc... all the same crap but different flies. lol.

If it's the start of AS...I pray for ya! It stinks.  Are you getting back spasms?  I've been hit with them for the past 2 weeks.  The Enbrel I was on kept the AS in check REAL WELL...but I aggrevated it somehow within the past year. Diazepam if I break it or chew it most of the times will stop a spasms...but God they're awful.

Missie...you need to move. lol. Get the heck out of Florida! QUICK! Vacation there only.  Let's MedEVac you out via helicopter & come up Northeast where Spine and Bone & Joint specialist are here for the pickins!  :)

If it was just noticed currently, perhaps it took a while for it to develop? Or you could have been recieving lousy xrays or the person reading them wasn't interpreting them correctly. But, the BRIGHT SIDE=they found it. Just another piece to the puzzle (not like we need one).

this is what i found on some research

 

This is not the full MRI report. Things that don't look important to you are often quite important.

Nevertheless, this overhead view of a typical cervical segment may help you:

VIEW IMAGE

Here I have drawn a left and right Luschka spur (#1) (aka: spondylosis, osteophyte, bone spur) that has 'encroached' (invaded) into the neuroforamen, left side greater than right, without compressing (pinching) the exiting nerve roots. (I've done other tutorials on Luschka Joint [aka: uncinate processes]questions... try a search for more examples)

I HAVE HAD CERVICAL DISC C5-C6-C7 FUSION, NOW 1 1/2 YEARS LATER I NOW HAVE RUPTURED DISC C3-C4,DDD AND SPONDYLOSIS AT C3-C4 WITH MILD NARROWING OF THE RIGHT NEURAL FORMINA,

MRI READS

C2-3 UNREMARKABLE.

C3-C4 SHALLOW MIXED SPONDYLOTIC DISC DISPLACEMENT AND SUPERIMPOSED RIGHT PARACENTRAL MIXED SPONDYLOTIC DISC PROTRUSION AND HYPERTROPHY OF LUSCHKA JOINT MILDLY NARROW RIGHT NEURAL FORAMINA. NORMAL CORD SIGNAL.

C4-C5 HYPERTROPHY OF THE RIGHT LUSCHKA JOINT AND RIGHT FACET ARTHROPATHY MILDLY NARROWS THE RIGHT NEURAL FORAMINA. NORMAL CORD SIGNAL.

...............THEY WANT TO REMOVE 2 MORE DISC AND FUSE AGAIN,

JUST WONDERING WHAT OPINION ANYONE ELSE HAS ON THIS.I FIGURE IF I FUSE AGAIN THAT I PROBABLY WONT BE ABLE TO MOVE MY NECK MUCH, OR IT WILL LOOK LIKE I CAN'T. NOT SURE ON WHAT I WANT TO DO. SCHEDULED FOR A MYLEOGRAM ON THE 30TH,...........AND THEN BACK TO THE DR. AFTER THE TEST,HAS ANY OF YOU HAD 4 DISC REMOVED??? PLEASE TELL ME about IT,AND ALSO WHAT THE HELL IS OR DOES THE LUSCHKA JOINT STUFF MEAN???